NaBloPoMo Day 19...... Reading signs

OK, I put off yesterday's post too late, so here it is today. Means I get to blog twice today - woo hoo!

I have a confession. I go into the wrong restroom occasionally. Yeah. It can be embarrassing.

The first time was about 10 years ago. Actually, the first 3 were about 10 years ago. I was heading to Boardman, Ohio to do some shopping. Unfortunately, something I ate decided it didn't want to hang around to long, so I needed to use the restroom - and fast. I went tearing into the restroom of Walmart, and excuse my bluntness, but sat my butt down on the toilet to do my thing. Suddenly, I heard voices in the restroom. Female voices...... I waited til everyone left, and went dashing out of the women's restoom. My exit was viewed by the ladies in layway. Sigh.

Fast forward a bit. I was at Sea World and needed the men's room. Unfortunately, as I walked in, I met women walking out. Why is there always an audience in our most embarrassing moments?! I of course put it in reverse immediately!

Fast forward a bit more. My grandma Buzard had just died, and my sisters and I were on our way into PA for the funeral. Vicki was 7 months pregnant with my youngest niece and needed a restroom often. First pit stop was at Burger King in Poland, Ohio. My other sister, Pam and I, waited in the car - until I decided I had better use it also. I went strolling in to the restroom - I still wonder why I didn't notice the absence of urinals... and walked into a stall. To my horror, I heard high heeled shoes walking out of the stall next to me - that would be my sister. One of the hardest things I ever had to do in my life was walk out of that restroom with the eyes of everyone in the building on me. Vicki said if she had seen me in there, she would have had an accident from laughing so hard.

It seemed I learned my lesson. I vowed never to do it again. And it seemed I had learned my lesson - to read the sign. But alas....... Fast forward a lot. Like to this past spring. Yeah, that recent. 2010. We were having a week of revival services at church, and on Saturday evening after church, my parents and I, my one sis and her husband, and my 3 nieces met 2 other couples from church at Baskin Robbins. As we waited in line, I decided to wash my hands. As I walked into the restroom, I heard my brother-in-law call my name. I figured it could wait. I was wrong. I walked out to find them all in gales of laughter. Yes, I had done it again.

For some reason I was thinking about my restroom mishaps the other night and it hit me that life is like that. Sometimes we wind up where we never thought we would be. We find ourselves doing things that we never thought we would. And sometimes it is because we didn't read the signs - the warning signs. We may have been in a hurry, or just careless. But the signs were there, and we didn't see them.

I have a renewed determination to check out the signs on restroom doors more carefully now - though I have a sense of deja vu - thought that prior to my last mishap - but we can all use a renewed determination to slow down and pay attention to the signs in our lives that aren't tacked on a door. It will save us a lot of trouble in the long run.